"I noticed."

title: Écoute chérie

summary: Minho has a problem with snoring and Taemin is deaf.

"When I put my head on your chest, it sounds like you're purring."

pairing: 2min

genre: fluff, disabilityAU

word count: 927

---

Minho snored. A lot. 

It'd begun when he was twelve and his father- in a manner that would be too prolix and pride-hurting to recount- accidentally kicked his nose instead of the soccer ball they were playing with, which resulted in a pouring nosebleed, endless scolding from his mother and an irreversible deviation of his septum. 

It had penalized him lots in his relationships. 

Most people thought they'd be okay with snoring until they heard what a hammering, blaring sound he'd let out for the entire night.

Most of his partners- especially girls- struggled to tolerate it in the long run, and even if they did, Minho felt too guilty for depriving them of a good night's sleep. 

He was deeply self-conscious about it, to the point that he'd call the lion's share of his relationships quits before they got close enough to sleep together.

This time, though, might've been different.

Cupid's arrow had struck him the moment he laid his eyes on Taemin, a blonde-haired and exceptionally beautiful pet store clerk.

Minho found out, through an improvised chat about the best treats for an unexistent dog of his, that Taemin was twenty-three and was working part-time to help pay for his degree in software engineering. 

During their talk, Taemin's eyes frequently slipped on Minho's lips. 

He'd stare at them for a few seconds, intensely as if they were cherries to bite and chew with his gaze, then went back to Minho's brown-mounted pupils. 

This gave Minho the courage to ask the younger out, and he accepted. 

--

They had already been on two dates and organized the third one when Minho spotted him in the university library. 

He was sitting alone at a small desk, furiously writing on his yellow ring binder as his attention flipped back and forth from his notes to a book. 

Minho sat on the chair next to his and whispered his name a few times, the glee bubbling up within him making it difficult to keep his voice low.

When he got no response from the younger, he raised it a bit- loud enough for a person sitting half a meter from him to hear him, but not enough to disturb the other students in the library.

When his attempts went ignored again, Taemin's focused frown started seeming somewhat upset... or resentful. 

Minho called him out once again and begged him to explain whether he had done something wrong- and, gosh, he must have messed up badly because Taemin didn't even bother looking at him. 

Frustrated and worried beyond his heart's endurance, he grabbed Taemin's shoulder in a desperate attempt to fetch his attention. 

The younger whipped his head towards Minho, the startled expression on his face turning into a warm, joyful beam when their eyes met.

That's how Minho found out Taemin was deaf. 

Well, not completely deaf, but had suffered severe auditory impairment ever since he was eleven. He could still hear a bit.

"So that's why you always stare at my lips..." he murmured, cursing himself for being dumb enough to misinterpret his stares as clues of interest. 

"Oh no, now I didn't notice you because you were whispering, but typically you speak so loudly that I can hear you," he explained with a smile. "It'd never happened to me before. I like that about you."

Minho gawked at him, unsure whether the pink glow on cheeks was one of shame or of a fluttering heart. 

"And I look at your lips because they're pretty." Taemin concluded.

--

After two months together, due to a movie that finished later than any bus would come, Taemin found himself sleeping at Minho's place.

Taemin was excited. 

Minho was anxious.  

After all, he wasn't entirely deaf, so there was a chance Minho's snoring could disturb him just like it did with the others. 

Nervousness wretched him to the point that, despite trying to refrain from asking him in the morning, he asked him in the morning.  

"Were you annoyed that I was snoring last night?" he blurted, still munching on his cereal. 

Taemin looked up at him, forehead scrunched in confusion. "Sorry, I didn't catch that."

"It's...it's nothing..." It was already embarrassing enough to say it once, so his cowardly self seized the opportunity to avoid asking the question and receiving the possibly devastating answer.

Taemin's features abruptly shifted in a pained expression.

What hurt him the most about his disability was the ostracism deriving from it: despite being able to hear and read lips well enough to comprehend most conversations, he happened quite often to miss something and ask his friends to repeat themselves. 

Their response was either a perfunctory summary that left him even more perplexed or, in the sadly most frequent cases, phrases like 'it doesn't matter', 'it's nothing' or 'it wasn't important anyway'. 

He recognized they weren't ill-intended, yet he couldn't help but feel unfairly left out. 

"Please, just repeat it?" he asked, eyebrows slightly raised and curved, the flickering glimmer in his eyes almost pleading him to reiterate.

Minho was taken aback by his reaction, so he surrendered.

"I was wondering if you'd noticed me snoring last night..." he admitted, reminding himself to speak clear and loud despite the embarrassment. 

A fond smile grew on Taemin's lips, round cheeks filling his face to the brim and squishing his eyes into half-moons.

He gave Minho a vigorous nod of the head. "I noticed."

When he started apologizing profusely, head downcast in chagrin, Taemin interrupted him. 

"It was cute, actually," he began explaining, "When I put my head on your chest, it sounds like you're purring."